UA Apollo or Apogee Quartet

[Blues Rocker]

I could use some advice from those with more digital recording experience than me. Typical older player from the '60's/'70's setting up a home studio and moving from tape to digital. I recently bought an Apogee Quartet (still unopened) but discovered the UA Apollo a bit later.

What I liked about the Quartet is the design (convenience) and Apogee name (press/converters) and convenience with just the right amount of i/o's.

What I like about the Apollo is being able to use the Universal Audio plugins live or while recording wet, design and quality.

I appreciate the clarity of sound of the Apogee, but the sound samples I've heard of the Apollo remind me of my tape days (not perfect sound, but full and warm and dynamic). I could go either way but am trying to think ahead instead of buying-selling-buying and losing value.

I should add that the Quartet has MIDI via USB3.0 input and the Apollo has Thunderbolt but no MIDI or USB, so I'm not sure if or how I
use a midi controller for drums or strings synths with it. My laptop supports Thunderbolt (2x) and USB3.0 (2x).

Have any of you used either or both of these in your studios and can direct me to which one you would recommend? Thanks

Set-up:

15" rMacbook Pro
Logic Pro 9
SM-58
Blue Baby Bottle
Yamaha SM-50H/10H sub
Les Paul Traditional Pro
EJ Strat
60th Anniversary Tele

 

[tinylittlecrumb]

You can always add a separate MIDI controller. I think the MIDI input on the Quartet is if you want to use it with an iOS device like an iPad.

 

[LiveSimply]

I currently use the Apogee Duet with my MacBook Pro along with Garageband. Quality sound, reliable as well as intuitive to use. Sleek, classy esthetics. I'm no pro, so just use it as a basic recording interface to enable me to practice and track my progress, but it more than meets my needs.

Both of those products look spectacular. Good luck.

 

[roscoenyc]

I got an Apollo Quad several months ago and
I don't have enough words to say how well the Apollo has performed for me.
Mic Pre's sound very good.
The great sound of the converters and clock was immediate. Just so much better than what I was used to hearing at home (w the older Firewire M-Box Pro-2) Working at 96k the box handles everything in stride.

I dont' know anybody who doesn't like the available plugs, especially if you came up in the analog years using the kind of outboard gear that they offer. The plugs are that good and they work just like the analog gear in my studio. I'm a known non fan of reverb in general but I've been waiting since 1986 to get my hands on an EMT250. I could love this box for that alone. A lot of the plugs have different engineer/producer presets that you can check out as starting places. Guys I know and have worked with.

Then there is the Apollo Console.
It really functions like a 'console'
At home I have mic plugged in and a guitar amp sim plugged in.
They are always there. I usually mute the track in Protools and listen through the console when I'm overdubbing at home. There is no perceptable latency this way.
The console allows you to build 2 independent headphone mixes.
It also lets you apply plugins on the record side, for instance a little bit of LA-2 on a vocal on the way in. I'm not aware of any DAW that lets you do this.
You have the choice of printing that compression or just monitoring through it.
The console also has a couple effects sends so you can give a guy some reverb or slap when he's doing a vocal.

I bought the Quad processor and the Thunderbolt card. I've done a couple full album mix projects here at home so far and the bands were very happy. I haven't been able to overload the processors so far. I also got the thumbs up from my mastering guy too.

For me at home it really is 'that good'.

 

[Blues Rocker]

I really appreciate the replies guys. Since I'm absolutely new to digital recording I decided to just get into it with the relative simplicity of Apogee Quartet to Logic Pro, adding the Apollo Quad/Thunderbolt after I get a good handle on the basics. I'm quite sure an Apollo is in my future, but for now I think I need to keep it simple. My thought is to eventually sell the Quartet to put toward the Apollo. My son is a very good guitarist and I can say with certainty that if the Apollo "sounds" as good as the Quartet I will be very happy with those plugins.